snow ; changki ◯ ON HOLD

7

"So where are we off to?" Kihyun said through ragged breaths, adjusting to the motion of the bus. Just from his face, Changkyun could tell this was a new environment for him, and he almost regretted the knee-jerk reaction to sprint for the next bus downtown - they could have just got a cab.

On top of that, "It's a surprise.", he had no fucking clue where to go. Having been so hellbent on dropping out as soon as that experiment was done, he had no plans for today but to mope around his house and look for jobs, but the way his skin was still on fire from where Kihyun had touched him told him, he knew better.

So he stayed. And here he was, eyes fixed on the pink haired boy who resembled a puppy right now, staring out of the window with wide, curious eyes.

"What?" He suddenly said, not once tearing his gaze from the glass. "I can see you staring at me; you still haven't answered my question too, where are we going?"

"Have you ever taken the bus before?"

This time, he turned to look directly in his eyes. "What kind of deflection - no. I haven't. I have never needed to or had the opportunity to take the bus."

"Must be nice." he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Not really. I quite like this. Better than being in the car with my passive aggressive parents. Or Hyungwon's borderline illegal driving," He smiled. "but answer me, where are we off to! I hate not knowing where I'm going."

"A cafe, so we can focus on our work without distractions and have an endless supply of coffee," he mirrored his smile. "we'll be extra productive."

Soon he came to realise he was terribly wrong; more precisely when a cute golden retriever laid his head on his lap for the 6th time. The pair had ended at a dog cafe, promising themselves they would have discipline yet here they were, Kihyun kneeling on the floor with an army of puppies around him.

"We won't get anything done in here," he laughed softly, distributing his attention across the dogs. He then stood up, sitting opposite changkyun and pulling out his laptop. "that one really likes you."

"Yeah," he looked down at the dog leaning on him peacefully, stroking the top of his head. "he's cute. Anyway, what should we start with?"

"I don't know; you might wanna, um, come closer," he said softly, typing into his laptop. "you won't be able to see what I'm doing from the other side of the table."

"Oh, yeah," Changkyun replied immediately, awkwardly scooting his chair around the table to sit next to him.
His desktop photo was of himself and a girl, an unfamiliar feature on Kihyun's face: a genuine smile. The girl grinned with a near identical eye smile, arms thrown around him. "who's that?"

"Oh, that's my sister. She lives abroad." He replied nonchalantly, pausing to grab his phone. Throughout this, Changkyun continued to scope out his desktop, eyes landing on a folder.

"You take photos?"

Kihyun looked up quickly, almost shielding his laptop defensively in the fear that Changkyun would open the folder. "Yeah, it's a good hobby to have."

"May I see one?"

"No, we have stuff to do, focus," Kihyun shook his head, opening a word document. "if we get everything done, I'll show you one."

"Ooh, okay." He chose to not press anymore, opening his notebook and writing a messy title at the top of the page. Kihyun was busy typing into his own laptop, at least until a bell sound from it made his fingers recoil from the keyboard.

Changkyun looked up when he noticed he was motionless, eyes flicking to the screen. At the top of it read a message from some "Hyunwoo", asking how he was doing. He slowly turned to Kihyun, who looked as if he'd seen a ghost.